Renew On Line (UK) 34

Extracts from the November-December 2001 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

7.Wind power: Scotland to get Vestas plant

In order to secure and expand its market leadership in the UK, the Danish wind company Vestas has decided to establish a fully owned subsidiary, Vestas - Celtic Wind Technology Ltd., with production facilities in Scotland. The factory will be located near Campbeltown on Kintyre, on the west cost of Scotland. The £9.5m buildings will be leased from Highlands & Islands Enterprise, the local economic development agency. Vestas’ investment in production equipment will amount to around £2.8m. The factory should be operational during the first quarter of 2002, and will assemble wind turbines and produce steel towers. It is expected to create initially 100 jobs in an area with high unemployment after closure of the Machrihanish Air Force base, and the local shipyard.

Tom Pedersen, Managing Director of Vestas - Danish Wind Technology A/S, who is responsible for the project commented “Scottish Power Plc., the largest electric utility in Scotland, has been instrumental in this project, with their commitment to further expand their already large portfolio of wind farms in the Kintyre area and elsewhere in Scotland.” - Vestas Contact: Tel:: +45 9675 2575

….but Wales misses out

Wind power has now become the focus of a bitter controversy in Wales, formenting a feud between people who should be natural allies, according to a report by Severin Carrel in the Independent (June 24th 2001). On one side, it says, there’s the Welsh Assembly’s environment minister, Sue Essex, and the Assembly’s conservation advisers, the Countryside Council of Wales. Against them are environmentalists and companies such as Cambrian, who the Independent says ‘accuse the minister and her advisers of blocking every major wind farm scheme that has been proposed since the mid-1990s.’ All seven projects, including Pentrefoelas and Tir Mostyn, have been “called in” by the minister on the grounds that they could ruin the landscape. ‘The projects, which would cost £120m to build, have now been delayed for months for planning inspections or public inquiries ordered by the Assembly. Wales once led the way in wind power and, eight years ago, approved what was then Britain's largest scheme, consisting of 103 very small turbines. But that momentum has ground to a halt. A few small schemes have since been approved, but none of the large ones has yet been given the go- ahead’. The Independent notes that a “strategic study” on renewable energy, commissioned by the Welsh Assembly, suggests that this attitude is undermining the Government's ambition to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 % by 2010. ‘It states baldly that there is a “compelling” and “irrefutable” case for Wales to increase dramatically the number of renewable energy projects. But wind power firms such as Anglesey Wind and Energy are threatening to leave Wales for more fruitful countries such as Scotland or Germany. Cambrian Engineering laid off 18 workers after Pentrefoelas was “called in” last year. Welsh firms have already lost several million pounds in development costs’.

The contrast with Scotland is dramatic. With Wales now having the reputation for being anti wind, evidently Vestas did not even consider investing there. So Wales could be missing out on inward investment and local job creation. However, the Countryside Council of Wales told the Independent that its objections were based on a desire to preserve the landscape and a tourism trade worth £2.2bn a year. “If there were too many wind farms, visitors would want to go to a more pleasant landscape elsewhere.”